The Air Force’s search and rescue field is losing a veteran service member. A decorated member of the Kentucky Air National Guard’s 123rd Special Tactics Squadron, Callie retired after six years of service. Yes, Callie is a dog. A dog with years of experience and several deployments.
Callie quietly retired earlier this year, but the Air National Guard released more details on the dog’s service and farewell ceremony this weekend. Callie, a Dutch Shepherd, helped locate deceased people in disaster zones, assisted in clearing rubble, made 15 military free-fall jumps and accumulated 750 flight hours while serving with the 123rd Special Tactics Squadron. During those years, Callie was the military’s only certified search and rescue canine. And yes, the dog has its own beret.
During her service, she worked with her handler, Master Sgt. Rudy Parsons, who also left 123rd Special Tactics Squadron after 11 years. Both the dog and the handler were awarded Meritorious Service Medals at Callie’s retirement ceremony.
At the event, Maj. Bryan Hunt, commander of the 123rd Special Tactics Squadron, called Callie “an amazing canine,” per the Air National Guard.
“She also deployed six times in support of state and national-level calls for assistance,” Hunt said. “Rudy was at her side for all of that. It didn’t matter if the call for help came at 2 o’clock in the morning, they were going out the door.”
The idea for pararescue dogs came after airmen deployed to Haiti in 2010 in the aftermath of its devastating earthquake. They saw how useful dogs were in helping to locate people trapped in the rubble in Port-au-Prince. Parsons led the effort in developing the program, and in 2019 Callie became the first dog to be fully trained and brought into pararescue work.
“I had always been the sarcastic guy in the room,” Parsons said at Callie’s retirement ceremony. “I always had a really negative quip. But when Callie came into my life, there was a massive shift. I wanted to be more uplifting as opposed to tearing things down.”
Military working dogs are not a new invention. The U.S. military has more than 1,500 dogs in service around the branches of the armed forces. But Callie was different. For her work with the 123rd Special Tactics Squadron, she had to train to be able to handle very specific conditions. holds certifications in freefall parachute insertion and mountain rescue, among other skills. Since then she has rappelled, ridden on helicopters and snow mobiles and traveled around the country for training and rescue missions. That included missions to Alaska and West Virginia, among other states.
It’s not been an easy job. The dog has taken several injuries, including knee injuries, eye damage and even a snake bite. While deployed to Mayfield, Kentucky in the wake of a tornado in 2021, she also suffered cuts to her paws and belly as she and her handler trudged through a destroyed candle factory looking for survivors.
While Callie was in active service, the military did try training another dog in search and rescue tactics, but was removed from the training.
Now officially retired, Callie is still with Parsons. But they’re not deploying to disaster zones as special operators. He adopted her after her service ended.
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